Australian Facilities and Capabilities

FACILITIES AND CAPABILITIES OF SGS MINERALS SERVICES AUSTRALIA
SCOPE OF SERVICES
SGS Minerals Services provides comprehensive metallurgical and analytical services from a purpose built laboratory in Perth, Western Australia.

The company provides a comprehensive range of test work capabilities including:

crushing screening grinding scrubbing and attritioning ultra fine grinding gravity concentration magnetic & electrostatic separation physical and thermal charaterisation of iron ore samples flotation dewatering (thickening and filtration) cyanidation, CIL, CIP & zinc precipitation carbon regeneration and elution Cyanide speciation	Column leach testwork (up to 20 tonnes) bacterial oxidation high pressure acid leaching low temperature and pressure oxidative leaching pressure oxidation solvent extraction ion exchange electrowinning pre-feasibility studies on-site process audits on site metallurgical consulting services environmental testing analytical services
SPECIALTIES testwork in support of bankable feasibility studies geometallurgical mapping fully integrated pilot plants grinding and comminution studies flotation processing of complex sulfide ores (Cu, Pb, Zn, Fe) flotation reagent development atmospheric leaching technologies e.g. bacterial oxidation continuous pressure leaching recovery or destruction of cyanide in gold-plant tailings testwork to determine rheology of slurries diamond processing and classification services (caustic fusion and DMS)

MATERIALS OR COMMODITIES TREATED
The laboratory is dedicated to providing high quality metallurgical testing across the broad spectrum of the minerals industry including:

Gold ores (refractory and non-refractory) Bauxite ore Nickel laterite ore Base metal ores (nickel, copper, lead and zinc) Iron ore

METALLURGICAL OPERATIONS
Our clients receive the best quality metallurgical services available, fully bankable reports and enjoy high levels of credibility with the leading financial institutions.

The integrated depth and breadth of technical services offered by our experienced staff means that testwork is carried out efficiently and informed decisions can be made in a timely manner.

We have efficient access to expertise and developments at the cutting edge of metallurgical technology.

Our strong commitment to client partnerships and stringent quality control is geared to assisting industry in the quest for greater productivity and profitability.

Our reputation for impartiality and neutrality gives the assurance to clients that no technologies or process routes are favoured due to vested interests.

MINERAL PROCESSING

• Crushing, screening, grinding, ultrafine milling
• Feed preparation: scrubbing and attritioning
• Flotation at bench and pilot scales
• Magnetic separation including the latest rare earth magnetic separators
• High-intensity electrostatic separation using plates and drums
• Heavy liquid and dense media separations, Magstream analysis
• Gravity separation including spirals, shaking tables, jigs (including Kelsey jig) and Knelson and Falcon concentrators
• Reductive and oxidative roasting
• Physical testing including Bond indices and FAG/SAG tests

SPECIALISED MINERAL PROCESSING EQUIPMENT

• A ball mill feed hopper equipped with a variable speed discharge conveyor
• A 550 mm dia’ (inside liners) by 1500 mm EGL rod mill
• A 900 mm dia’ (inside liners) by 900 mm EGL rubber lined, trunnion overflow primary ball mill
• A Hardinge 640 mm dia’ (inside liners) by 720 mm belly length, trunnion overflow conical ball mill
• A 150 mm dia’ (inside liners) by 250 mm EGL trunnion overflow mill
• A 280 mm dia’ (inside liners) by 320 mm EGL trunnion overflow mill
• A 25 L Metprotech stirred mill (for ultrafine grinding of intermediate product streams)
• Owing to the ore feed rates typically processed the mill is generally operated in closed circuit with a DSM screen classifier fitted with the appropriate wedge wire screen panel required to meet the client’s flotation feed P80 specification.  If necessary the grinding circuit can be closed with a hydrocyclone (Warman, Krebs, Concord or Mozley).
• A range of mechanically agitated conditioning tanks
• A range of attritioning cells (manufactured by Quinn equipment in Denver USA)
• Iwaki reagent metering pumps (26 units)
• Slurry pH control systems (four)
• 10 Sala SPV 181 vertical spindle slurry pumps
• A range of Bredel hose pumps and air actuated diaphragm pumps
• The flotation cell inventory consisting of over 80 Agitair flotation cells (8 to 40 L capacity)

BATCH HYDROMETALLURGY

• Gold leaching by cyanidation and other lixiviants (CIL, CIP, column leach, carbon management, bottle and vat leaches)
• Heap and dump leaching of copper and gold
• Nickel laterite leaching
• Pressure oxidation of refractory gold and nickel, copper, cobalt, zinc sulphide concentrates
• Bacterial vat and heap leaching
• Solvent extraction (mixer/settlers and columns) and electrowinning on batch and continuous pilot scale
• Precipitation and re-leaching of products
• Cyanide speciation, recovery and destruction technologies
• Refractory gold and gold-copper testing and process development
• Pressure acid leaching at bench and pilot scale
• Recovery of rare metals (vanadium, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, rare earths)
• Resin and ion-exchange recovery of metals
• PGM recovery using hydrometallurgy

SPECIALISED BATCH HYDROMETALLURGY EQUIPMENT
Batch autoclaves - titanium. Three units: Two of approximately 1 US gal. capacity and one of 5 US gal. capacity.

HYDROMETALLURGICAL PILOT PLANT
The most advanced pressure leaching piloting facility in the world – the HIPAL® submarine autoclave pilot plant, has been commissioned and operated at the SGS facility in Perth. The plant was designed by Hatch Engineering and constructed and detailed by Zeton Inc. of Canada. BHP-Billiton funded the design and construction of the equipment, to ensure that world-class testing facilities were available in Australia for the development of several of its nickel laterite projects. When not being used by BHP-Billiton, the pilot plant is available for independent use by SGS, working with third parties conducting evaluations of other properties.  

The pilot plant is operated by SGS to ensure access to the skills and experience of the metallurgists, engineers, chemists and technologists of SGS. SGS in Australia and Canada has extensive experience developing, testing and piloting flowsheets used in the processing of lateritic nickel ores.  

SPECIALISED HYDROMETALLURGY PILOT PLANT EQUIPMENT

• Continuous four-stage Cascade Ti Gr. 2 Autoclave Facility - PAL pilot plant (18 to 26 L volume; max operating temp:  290ºC; 7500 kPa; 4 to 10 kg/h solids)
• Continuous Submarine five-Compartment 68 L Autoclave Facility - HIPAL Pilot Plant (Ti Gr.7; max operating temp:  290ºC; 7500 kPa treats up to 30 kg/h solids; single stage flash let-down system; handles liquors with up to 70 g/L Cl-; variable retention: 30 to 90 min)
• Atmospheric Leach Skid (cascade circuit with up to seven stages including ferric precipitation; volume ~74 – 134 L/stage; ceramic brick-lined agitated steel tanks; 95 to 100ºC operation
• Three or four-stage acid Neutralisation circuit (80 to 95ºC) with option for Cr(VI) Pre-Reduction via H2S (g) addition using duty and stand-by pipeline reactors; handles feed flowrates of ~ 50 to 100 L/h
• CCD washing and thickening circuit with up to six stages (each of ~640 L including pre-mix tanks; handles up to 30 kg/h dry solids; in-line feed flow measurement)
• Solution purification circuit with up to six stages for removal of Fe(II), Al and other impurities via limestone addition and air-O2 sparging; auto-pH control; variable retention (4.5 to 10 hours typically)
• Multi-stage circuits for precipitation of MHP, MHP filtration and washing; scavenger precip. of Ni and Co, and Effluent /Tailings treatment (Mn, Mg precipitation and Tailings Neutralisation).
• Small-scale batch: 40 L pressure vessel
• Large-scale semi-continuous: 200 L vessels together with steam stripping and scrubber for ammonia recovery.
• Continuous Steam Strip Column: ~20 kg/h steam (10 to 15 L/h liquor) fully instrumented with data logger
• Mixed Ni-Co sulphide precipitation testwork can be carried out on both batch and continuous scale.  Pilot programs are undertaken in a purpose-built, multi-stage, continuous unit located in a fully ventilated shipping container. The unit comprises a 15 to 30 L, 4 (or 6) compartment, Ti Gr. 2 submarine autoclave capable of feed flowrates of up to 110 L/h with retention times of typically 10 to 45 min, and incorporates seed recycle (at 200 to 500%); with in-house laser particle size analysis; Vent gases are treated in a integrated H2O2/caustic scrubber to < 1 ppm H2S (typical).
• Batch equipment includes mixers and shakeout flasks of various sizes.
• Continuous pilot equipment is extensive and flexible; circuits can be constructed using various configurations of mixer/settlers for liquor feed rates from 3 to 30 L/h
• Ancillary equipment includes heating, pH control and internal recycle control

SGS has conducted batch and continuous SX tests on both the so-called ‘acid’ circuit (Cyanex 272 followed by DE2HPA or Versatic Acid) and the ammoniacal circuit (LIX 84I), as well as cobalt-zinc separation in refining circuits (Cyanex 272).

ELECTRO-WINNING:
A range of electro-winning cells is available for the production of both nickel and cobalt. These cells can incorporate bagged anodes or cathodes.  Electro-winning can be done in batch mode or continuously when integrated with the solvent extraction pilot plant.  Nickel electro-winning has been carried with a range of cathode sizes from 1/10 to full size.

ANALYTICAL SERVICES
SGS has an established Assay Laboratory to handle the analytical requirements for our in-house projects. Quality of results and turnaround times are critical to the successful completion of these projects, and these are strictly monitored with corrective action being taken whenever required. The large amount of samples in short timeframes generated during pilot-plant campaigns has ensured that the Assay Laboratory has the systems and procedures in place to cope with most scenarios. This has made the laboratory well-placed to handle custom assay work.

SPECIALISED ANALYTICAL EQUIPMENT

• Digestion.  Four-acid, aqua regia and sodium peroxide fusions.
• Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS).  Two Varian instruments are used - a model 200 and a model 220FS.
• Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectroscopy.  A Perkin Elmer Optima 3000 ICP-OES is used; this instrument is generally more sensitive and less prone to interferences than the Atomic Absorption technique.
• Leco.  SGS has two Leco Sulphur Analysers, enabling both low and high concentrations of sulphur to be analysed.
• Gold.  DIBK extraction of cyanide solutions and AAS assay are routinely conducted.
• Titrimetric.  Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid (EDTA) and acid/base titrations are regularly performed (free acid; acid neutralising capacity (ANC)).
• Leaching.  Laboratory-scale leach tests such as acid-soluble copper and cyanide-soluble copper are performed.

MINERALOGICAL SERVICES
SGS Minerals Services group offers mineralogical services from the SGS Advanced Mineralogy Network in Brisbane, Australia.

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
SGS provides a range of testing and consultancy services in the environmental area, and has a range of testing facilities for all unit processes in mineral processing operations from ore pre-treatment through to tailings treatment and testing.  As such, SGS has developed testing procedures ranging from the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP), through to Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) Prediction Tests, Cyanide measurement, speciation and detoxification testing by a range of technologies, and arsenic waste stabilisation and control.  Our clients include a large range of mining companies in Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

GENERAL
SGS Minerals Services’ metallurgical group has more than 1500 employees worldwide. Approximately 80 work out of the Australian facilities.